A pure historical set in 1400 featuring the first Doctor, Vicki, Ian, and Barbara. It's similar in many ways to, "The Massacre" as it's a tale of religious persecution and betrayal. However, it also has a sense of mystery in it as Barbara wants to find out what happened to Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the Famous Canterbury Tales.

As a historical, this is well-written and it makes the history come alive. The only off note was the final confrontation in the woods with Thomas Arundel which came off as a bit over the top particularly for a story like this. Still, the rest of story works brilliantly.

A rather compelling tale, with the first Doctor and his companions thrust into the 15th century, a world of "The Canterbury Tales" and Henry IV and all the skull duggery of that era. This has a an extremely strong story from the off and, but this coupled with a very loose structure, doesn't actually work for me at all well. In fact I would go as far to say that it sort of moves along on the backs of William and Maureen, solely on their acting alone. The overall feeling is that this is definitely "could have done better". That aside from this, the one thing that Big Finish, do so well is fill the soundscape with what appears to be many more actors than are actually present in this release.

The story takes our companions and the Doctor straight back into the era of early political intrigue and wrong doing cast against the back drop of Chaucer, prisons, political intrigue and deception. The separation element see's both the Doctor, Ian and Vicky all taking a different route. Presiding over New Year revelry. Not the best for the Early Adventure tales.

An excellent pure historical filled with political intrigue, danger and suspense. The performances are excellent across the board and if you happen to know your Chaucer, there's plenty of fun references to pick up. Highly recommended.